The appearance of the Star of Bethlehem, which in the Bible guides the three wise men to Jesus' birth place, can be backed up by science, according to an astronomer.

Mark Thompson, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Astronomy Presenter on BBC's The One Show, has conducted research that he says can explain the story, told in the Gospel of Matthew, about the star leading the travellers to Bethlehem.

Using historical records and computer simulations that allow the position of the stars and planets to be charted back to around the time when Jesus is believed to have been born, Mr Thompson claims there was an unusual astronomical event.

He said that between September 3BC and May 2BC there were three "conjunctions" where the planet Jupiter and a star called Regulus passed close to each other in the night sky.

The planet passed Regulus traveling first in its usual easterly movement, before then appeared to reverse and pass it again in a westerly direction and then changing direction once more to resume its normal direction to the east to pass the star for a third time.

Mr Thompson, who is due to present the BBC's new astronomy programme Stargazing Live with Professor Brian Cox, said: "The Three Wise Men were believed by some to be zoroastrianist priests, who were renowned astrologers at the time, so the king of planets passing so close to the king of stars on three occasions would have been hugely significant and could have been interpreted as the birth of a new king.

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"Interestingly, in the world of astrology Jupiter is considered to be the king of planets and Regulus, which is the brightest star in the constellation Leo, is considered to be the king of stars."

There have been numerous theories put forward by astronomers in the past as scientific explanations of the Star of Bethlehem, including a comet, a supernova – where a star explodes and produces huge amounts of light – and a planet.

Mr Thompson said he looked at "all the possibilities" before coming to his conclusion.

The three conjunctions, which took place on 14 September 3BC, 17 February 2BC and 8 May 2BC, were caused by an astronomical phenomenon called retrograde motion, in which a planet will appear to stop its normal eastward drift through the night and instead drift back towards the west for a period of several weeks.

This happens because the outer planets in our solar system are orbiting the sun at a slower rate than the Earth and so our planet occasionally overtakes them.

"The retrograde motion meant the planet was travelling in a westerly direction in the sky and so the [Three Wise Men] may have followed it from Persia," Mr Thompson said.

"By camel it would have taken about three months and interestingly this is roughly about the same time Jupiter was travelling in this westward direction."

He added: "It is not for me to actually say whether the Bible is right or wrong, I am just drawing on the facts in front of me."